Statehouse Insider: Why didn't Quinn just rescind those raises?

Doug Finke

Sunday

Jul 18, 2010 at 12:01 AMJul 18, 2010 at 6:15 PM

So Gov. PAT QUINN gives out generous pay raises to about three dozen employees in his executive office and gets clobbered with bad publicity for being so tone-deaf in the middle of the state’s financial meltdown.

So Gov. PAT QUINN gives out generous pay raises to about three dozen employees in his executive office and gets clobbered with bad publicity for being so tone-deaf in the middle of the state’s financial meltdown.

What does he do? Does he simply rescind the raises, the simplest and most direct way of quelling the uproar? No, he tries to re-establish his frugality cred by ordering all nonunion employees under his control to take 24 unpaid days off rather than the 12 he originally ordered. He said it amounts to a 9.2 percent pay cut.

The directive went out in an executive order issued Friday over the signature of DAVID VAUGHT, Quinn’s budget director. Vaught received a 20 percent pay raise from Quinn.

The order doesn’t affect just those who got raises. It covers about 2,700 merit compensation employees, largely management types and people who work in policy-making positions.

Quinn said the state’s financial condition worsened in just the past few days, when he became convinced the feds may not come through with some Medicaid money the state is banking on receiving. Few people are buying it. They figure he had to do something to blunt the criticism over the pay raises, and this was his solution.

And you wonder why more and more state workers clamored to join a union the past few years.

* Quinn also talked about getting more concessions from unionized state employees. He can’t force them to do that, but said the state will negotiate to get more from them.

If concessions aren’t forthcoming, Quinn held out the possibility of layoffs. Presumably, that would be among people who belong to unions other than the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents the bulk of state workers under Quinn’s control.

They agreed to a deal with the administration in January to postpone part of their pay raises in exchange for a promise of no facility closures or layoffs before June 30, 2011. It’s in writing. It will be interesting to see how (or if) the administration tries to get around that.

* In some areas, Quinn is being hailed for his effort last week to stop Illinoisans from having to publicly declare their party affiliation in order to vote in a primary election.

Quinn used his amendatory veto powers to change Illinois law and eliminate the practice. It’s a popular move — many voters detest the idea of having to declare a party in order to vote in a primary. Some election experts point to it as a reason why primary election turnout is so dismal.

But you have to wonder if ex-Gov. ROD BLAGOJEVICH did the same thing in the same way as Quinn, what the reaction would be. The vehicle Quinn chose for changing to an open primary was a pretty short and innocuous bill dealing with the Board of Elections preparing a guide for voters to use in primary elections. Quinn lifted a whole section of existing state law dealing with primaries and declaring a party and added it to the voter guide bill. He then eliminated the parts dealing with declaring a party.

Can you imagine the rage if Blagojevich had added stuff to a bill just so he could delete the parts he didn’t like? When lawmakers felt that Blagojevich went too far in stretching the limits of his amendatory veto powers, they refused to go along. There’s a good chance they’ll do the same with Quinn if he gets carried away with what he thinks he can do.

* Among the bills Quinn signed last week is one that prohibits the use of public money to pay for an official portrait of any governor impeached and removed from office. You know who’s affected by that.

But when you think about it, the public in this state elected Blagojevich not just once, but twice. The second time was even after it was abundantly clear that the feds were snooping around the administration and Blagojevich had exhibited many of the character traits that endeared him to people.

Maybe the people of the state deserve to have their tax money spent on a Blagojevich portrait.

Doug Finke can be reached at 217-788-1527 or doug.finke@sj-r.com.

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